Portraits: Week 6

Working outside of one's comfort zone is always a challenge.
For me that means doing group shots.
I don't do a lot of them and my experience has always been the school/team photo.  So shooting five of my peers in a studio portrait setting was a bit of a refresher, to say the least.


Whenever you shoot someone's portrait you have to find a scenario that fits them, lighting included. With one person it doesn't take much. Two requires double the thought, etc.
If the goal is to walk away with a great photo, especially in a group shot, posing the model(s) isn't necessarily the key. Look through any fashion magazine and you'll see page after page of awkwardly posed models with blank stares. Are those the ads we pay attention to? I hope not. The ones we really stare at are the ones that capture a moment, something special that you know happened in an instant and was gone as soon as the shutter closed.

This shot isn't the world's greatest photo.  The placement of the "models" (yes, they are real photographers) isn't perfect.
But the moment is perfect.
The lone photographer, with his point and shoot camera, looks like he's facing a "firing squad," and it's not just because he is.

This is why I like taking portraits so much.  As time goes by, we often forget about those little moments that helps us connect with other people.  The more of those moments I can preserve, the more connections I can help make possible.


When one of my portraits is used for an ad, I want the viewer to look past whatever my photo is selling and see the person it's of.  In thirty years, I want the people I've photographed to have something special to look at whenever they can't recall that funny joke or witty story that made them laugh.